The Hypothesis Part 1

Marketing/Sales for Smaller Non-Commercial Gyms

The opportunity:

Who – Gym owners and staff of smaller gyms usually locally

What – Don’t have the time, staff, or expertise to market and sell their services.

Why – Small businesses don’t have a blueprint on how to grow their business, they are entrepreneurs and are learning as they go.

Testing the Who – All businesses have this need especially gyms. The bigger gym names have a lot of time and money invested in sales and marketing and that is why they have made a name for themselves. The reason I believe the opportunity is greater with smaller local gyms is because the process won’t be as long and intensive because we are not dealing with a big corporation. Small gym owners want to focus more on their business and providing value and not so much on getting new customers and that is why this need is there. 

Testing the What – I think some Gyms might be content being small and are not looking to grow so that might be an obstacle. Also, there might be other gyms that already have a process they like, maybe not as successful but it’s one they know and like. Also, a lot of the staff at these local gyms are younger and don’t have the experience in sales and marketing. However, there is companies that provide this service already but not on a local scale but that might be another road bump.

Testing the Why – Again many of these smaller gyms have young staff that are inexperienced, and the owners don’t have the time or money to train them. Many of these smaller gyms are run by the owner and they make all the decisions, so they might not be very good at delegating and so some things don’t get done. These owners might not believe in marketing or selling their service, they might have the wrong mindset and just need to see good results.

Interviews:

One of the people I interviewed is a young college student working at a local CrossFit Gym. She is a full-time student and works about 15 – 20 hours a week coaching and doing personal training. She feels like there is not enough time to focus on her clients, school, and also helping in recruiting new members. Sometimes it becomes more of a hassle and headache to take on some of those responsibilities even though she says the owner does most of it. As far as what she does to recruit new people to her gym she says she just invites her friends and people she knows but she doesn’t know much about the process from there.

I also interviewed a coach at small weightlifting gym who Is looking to start a gym of his own. He says the main problem he foresees is not knowing what “marketing strategy” is best and what to spend money on. Will it provide the results I need, Or will I just be wasting my money, are some of the questions he posed. He also said that starting off he would envision himself doing most of the work and eventually delegating to staff. 

One local business owner said that it might be difficult because there are marketing services already out there that are “proven”. They are pricey but if an owner is serious about sales and growing their gym then he says it would be easier to go with the established service. When asked who would do all the follow-up and meeting with clients etc., he did say it would be him. He prefers to meet with those that will join his business beforehand but does agree that takes up a lot of time.

The others I interviewed shared most of the same insights, but they did ask me a lot of questions as far as the service I am offering. How I would go about it, what would it entail, etc. They seemed interested in the idea but also had their doubts.

Summary:

This is a need that every business has, and I think is something many smaller businesses are desperate for. There are lots of obstacles I was able to learn about. For example, I did not know many of the companies that offer similar services. Also, these smaller gyms rely heavily on word of mouth and they often do what other smaller businesses have done in the past so getting my foot in the door might be very difficult. I was able to see how much work some of these owners and staff do, like I said they don’t have a blueprint, so the business is run by themselves and if something doesn’t get done then that’s it no one else will do it. I think the opportunity for a local marketing service is still there, but it will take some tweaking and convincing.